The FBI reportedly looked into the Trump Organization's attempt to build a posh hotel in Latvia's capital in 2015 with a Russian investor linked to President Vladimir Putin. The potential deal was later called off after the Russian and others were questioned by Latvian investigators.
Before he was president, Donald Trump as well as his daughter Ivanka worked on the prospective deal at the company's titular tower with Russian Igor Krutoy, but Latvian anti-corruption officials later alerted U.S. officials, The Guardian reported Thursday. The FBI then responded to their request for help.
The Latvian officials reportedly asked for Trump to be interviewed, and one member of the Trump Organization did speak with the FBI, the report said, citing unnamed sources.
In June 2011, Ivanka Trump, currently a senior White House adviser, met with Krutoy and two others at Manhattan's Trump Tower to discuss the potential deal. They later met with Donald Trump, according to Krutoy and Latvian businessman Viesturs Koziols, one of the attendees.
The hotel was supposed to be built in Riga, Latvia's capital, and Krutoy and the Latvian businessmen were quite happy to be working with Trump, a billionaire real estate mogul well known for branding his name on towers around the globe.
"They were very proud to be talking with Trump," Andrejs Judins, a Latvian Unity party member of Parliament, told The Guardian.
Krutoy is also linked to the members of the Russian family that helped the president's eldest son, Donald Jr., set up the infamous Trump Tower meeting in June 2016. He's a composer who reportedly wrote music for Russian singer Emin Agalarov. Agalarov's father hosted Trump's Miss Universe pageant in 2013 in Moscow.
Trump's links to Russia, as well as the June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer claiming to have dirt on Hillary Clinton, have become part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Mueller has also looked into Trump's actions following The New York Times's reports about the meeting.
The president has repeatedly denied having any business interests in Russia and says no collusion took place between his campaign and Russia during his race for the White House.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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